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unpublished stuff?

So, because of Arjan's ancient link that he showed us in another thread, i got thinking...

There he lists some products that might have been, most notably Charge of the Cold Rider and Shadow Moon. Were either of these ever published / finished in any sense? I know they weren't officially published, but curious if there was enough to be finished off after the fact.

FYI, in case anyone is interested, I contacted Simon Hawke and Richard Baker about Siege. Neither knew anything about it. Still a few more leads to pursue, but Simon also commented something to the effect that he'd moved on professionally - ie, I don't think it was even ever intended for him to write, although I guess that doesn't preclude it from being a sequel - just that it wasn't going to be a Simon Hawke written sequel.

Also, it's not exactly unpublished material, but this might also be a good thread to mention that I've successfully located three, rather unknown (no mentions on this site or wiki & I can find & only 2-3 results on Google), Birthright adventures made for the RPGA Network and run at official TSR events. I've put an inquiry in with WOTC about potentially sharing them, even if I'm a bit pessimistic if they'd ever allow it. I also asked about permission for "Of Varsks and Winter Witches", although I've yet to locate a copy (although not for lack of trying). I don't like the idea of Birthright material being lost to time and not available to fans...

They three adventures are -
Blood of Four Kings (Gencon 1995)
The Long Road Home (Birthright Benefit, Winter Fantasy 1996)
There is a Tide (Birthright Benefit, Gencon 1996)

Here's a tidbit, "There is a Tide" has a dragon...and it's honest-to-goodness Birthright I might add.

Do you know who published those three adventures? They might have been RPGA but I am wondering how much TSR/WotC publicised them.

Good question.

They have copyright notices from the RPGA Network, TSR etc. The events were official TSR events. Ie the initial text says "standard RPGA Network Tournament", "A One-Round AD&D Game Birthright Tournament", and mentions "standard RPGA Network voting procedures". The copyright notice, format of the adventure, initial RPGA Network tournament instructions, etc are all the same - ie like it was made to certain standards. Based on what I know of "Of Varsks and Winter Witches", that should make them at least as official/canon as that adventure (I believe the Adventurer's Guild was also RPGA Network, but focused more on running this sort of material in local shops instead of at conventions). They were official play events with notices posted Polyhedron and Dragon if I recall. I didn't attend either GenCon or Winter Fantasy at that time (I was only in high school), but Winter Fantasy was described by attendees as being a very scheduled convention where you signed up through the RPGA for these events.

I was absolutely floored to discover 3 Birthright adventures I'd never heard of. Look them up if you want, there's, at most, about 2-4 relevant Google search results for them. Absolutely nothing on this site (well, until this thread) that I can find. Some of the results are the full text of some Polyhedron and Dragon magazines which includes the announcements of them. As I said, given what I know of RPGA events, it should make these at least as official as "Of Varsks and Winter Witches" for canon purposes. I haven't sifted through them in great depth quite yet to see if I can find anything that strays from the setting or otherwise conflicts with published material, but I plan to as time allows. With just a simple read/glance thru of the flavor & npcs/etc, and my recollection of the areas, they don't look glaringly problematic. There is a Tide is set in a Brecht realm, with some Vos influences, The Long Road Home is Khinasi, etc.

I did talk to the author of There is a Tide, and after I commented to him that the adventure felt like a mini-Player's Secrets for the Brecht realm it was set in and seemed really authentic Birthright-feeling, he indicated that the reason for that adventure having some pretty good authentic Birthright-flavor & that feel was that he was working on a Birthright sourcebook for TSR, which was cancelled, and instead he was asked to make said adventure. So he just adapted some of what he had worked on. If I did get permission from WOTC I figured I'd ask the authors if they'd be willing to do a little interview - it would be really neat to hear the story on the adventures and (what they remember) of their thoughts on the adventure.

Edit - Thank you for putting together that list! I've actually referred to it many times over the years. I never did bother with the miniatures or Spellfire cards (maybe I should have though on the cards). I also skipped on the art when I had the chance (noble knight had a couple of pieces a few times). Did grab the comic - it was sorta neat. I think you're missing "Siege" on the unpublished list, and if you want to be super thorough, the official guide to the computer game. I have everything else though except "of varsks".